Conference Agenda

Terrestrial, air, and satellite spectrum use is increasingly converging and conflicting within the same bands, but technical and policy analysis is constrained by spectrum operating rights and parameters being fragmented across multiple databases and incompatible schemas. Within the United States, specifically under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), this information is split between numerous licensing systems, namely the Universal Licensing System (ULS), the International Communications Filing System (ICFS), and the Experimental Licensing System (ELS). Each licensing system has its own data schema that requires intricate domain specific knowledge to fully utilize, making it a nightmare to map spectrum holdings between databases. This has been less of an issue with bands historically limited to one primary use, such as terrestrial or space, which are typically contained within only one database. However, the rise of more efficient multimodal spectrum uses like the FCC’s Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) framework means that far more nuanced coordination conflicts are occurring. This paper asks whether these heterogeneous licensing systems can be unified through an open-source, spatial-temporal schema that captures who may operate, what service is authorized, where operation is permitted, and when the authorization is valid.

For this paper, data was extracted from ULS, ICFS, and ELS on any licenses or requests for the AWS-H Block: 1915-1920 MHz and 1995-2000 MHz. This frequency is a bellwether for future coordination issues given the FCC has designated it for SCS, it is already allocated for fixed and mobile services on a primary basis, and it is subject to billions of dollars of economic interest with SpaceX’s effort to purchase this spectrum from EchoStar. This paper then translates all of these desperate licenses to one unified schema that aims to answer who currently has requests or licenses to operate in these bands, for what type of service the license is allocated, where these licenses are valid, and when the license or request is valid. For the spatial-temporal aspects of the data, temporal tracking can be handled by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) date formats, but spatial data is far harder to unify given the smattering of different datums and the nuanced translation layers between them, such as North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27), NAD 83, or World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84). Rather than engineering another spatial framework, this paper utilizes the H3 geospatial indexing system, which the FCC also utilizes for its Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program. While not as exact as distinct polygons, this system splits the world into progressively smaller interlaced hexagons, which are fixed in place and can be represented with a simple string ID. This means geospatial operations and statistics become simple string parsing rather than polygon splicing and enables the joining of BDC data to add real-world throughput measurements, quantifying how efficiently an operator is using their license. Lastly, the who of who has the right to operate in a band is reliant on the FCC Registration Number (FRN) system, which assigns a unique 10-digit code to each entity.

This paper contributes to contemporary literature and policy discussions by demonstrating how an open-source, shared data schema can improve transparency, reduce complexity, and add analytical capabilities in spectrum management. As spectrum coordination becomes ever more complex, particularly between hybrid communication networks that utilize terrestrial, air, and satellite based communication payloads, the ability to systematically and programmatically integrate databases becomes crucial for policymakers, researchers, companies, and regulators. By providing an open-source schema and implementation using the ubiquitous, free Python programming language, this work offers a practical framework for assessing spectrum operating rights across services, locations, and time.